Militia are the core units of your armed forces in Manor Lords, and they are the keys to victory for fighting off bandits, a baron’s forces, and more. But, to tackle foes, there are certainly units better than others. Here’s a closer look at the best units, militia, and loadouts for creating a solid army in Manor Lords.

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Spearmen with large shields are arguably the best militia in Manor Lords.

Using Spearmen with Shields¶

From our experience, the best early-game militia in Manor Lords are the spearmen with the large shield. Large shield spearmen are incredibly durable, even with gambesons on. The large shield offers them very good missile deflection among melee damage deflection. Furthermore, the length of the spears means they can keep their enemy at effective range, jabbing low armored opponents down incredibly easily.

If you set your spear men to ‘Stand Your Ground’, their defensiveness doubles making them even tankier, while reducing their attack speed by half. Alternatively, you can use the ‘Give Ground’ movement order to allow your units to slowly fall back. Effective micro-management of the large shield spearman using the ‘Give Ground’ option and then attacking can keep enemies at range very well, forcing them into spear flannels and reducing the exposure your spearmen face. It can easily mow down footmen or protect against polearm units that way.

• You can learn more about tactics and army controls in our Army tutorial guide.

After that, polarm units are the next best option, but only when you unlock mail armor and helmets. Polearm units sacrifice all shields and defensiveness in favor of higher damage and ranged weapons. When units close in on them, they drop very easily as they have little to no difference with a gambeson. However, when you get mail armor, that changes to make them much more durable. And, when you have retinues in your army, they can equip plate and polearms to make them true high-damage monsters. It’s something worth noting as you upgrade your armies and equip them with significantly better equipment.

If you don’t have a high defensive option for polearm units, footman are your best-supporting units to dish out damage to pair with spearmen. At least until archers get a better damage buff, as archers were over-nerfed in the 0.7 Early Access build. If they get buffed again, archery may actually start peppering enemy units easier and kill many while your spearmen tank the frontline for them.

Saying that, your large, shielded spearmen also get helmets and mail armor when they live in level 3 burgage plots. So, these units also get incredibly tankier too. Continue to be defensive and give ground, and then push into polearm units to counter just about everything using these units. Ergo, these are the reasons why spearmen tend to be the best militia in Manor Lords.